The Underrated Strategy to Advance Your Career as an IC
And it doesn't require a promotion.
You don't have to become a manager to advance your career.
But it feels like climbing the ladder is the only way to grow.
IC > Sr. IC > Manager > Sr. Manager > Director > VP
It's definitely one way, but it's not the only way.
There's another way to advance that's not climbing the ladder, getting promotions, and getting significant raises.
It's a strategy you can use indefinitely.
Transition to adjacent roles
The currency of career growth is your combination of skills, experience, and pattern recognition.
The more of these you have the more robust you are, the more jobs you can excel in, and the more job security you have. When you transition to a new role, you have the opportunity to increase your skills and experience. If you do, and apply your new skills, you're advancing. You're giving yourself the foundation for continued growth.
The best way to set yourself up for that growth is to move to an adjacent role.
What is an adjacent role?
An adjacent role is a job that:
- Is similar to your current job.
- Requires skills and tools that overlap with your current job.
- Doesn't require much additional training or education to be qualified for.
Consider your current role. What are similar roles or job titles? Who else, with a different job title, uses the same tools as you? What jobs could you apply for with your current skill set?
Your answers will point you toward adjacent roles you can pursue.
Examples of adjacent roles
Here are a few data roles, their adjacent roles, and the overlapping skills:
If you're a data analyst:
- Analytics engineer: SQL, dbt, Tableau
- Data engineer: SQL, dbt, data modeling
- Data scientist: SQL, Tableau, Python, data analysis, statistics
If you're a data engineer:
- Data analyst: SQL, dbt
- ML engineer: SQL, Python, ML
- Software engineer: Python, git
- Analytics engineer: SQL, dbt, data modeling
If you're a data scientist:
- Data analyst: SQL, Tableau, Python, data analysis, statistics
- ML Engineer: SQL, Python, ML
- Data engineer: SQL, Python, data modeling
There are a lot of opportunities.
Some of these moves might not be a promotion, but you get paid in other ways.
Benefits of moving to adjacent roles
So how do adjacent roles help you advance your career?
- Keeps your career fresh. It feels good to try something new. When you start a new role, you have energy and excitement that will accelerate your learning and skill building.
- Learn new technical skills. The more technical skills you have, the more jobs you can perform, the more projects you can own, the more people you will interact with. As you increase your technical skill, you increase your job opportunities. This sets you up for raises and promotions in the future.
- Learn what skills transfer. When you try different roles you will notice the skills that transfer: leadership, communication, writing, project management, etc. When you gain an intuitive understanding transferrable skills, you'll understand which skills you should focus on to advance your career.
- Increase your capability. When you are more capable, you are more valuable. More skills make you more capable. More knowledge makes you more capable. More pattern recognition makes you more capable. The most capable are the most valuable, and the most valuable get rewarded.
Career advancement doesn't always mean a promotion or a move up the ladder.
It can mean advancing in knowledge, skill, and experience.
Consider an adjacent role that will help you advance.
It might be the right next move.